Realizations
by Firerra
Summary: [ShikaIno] Ino's not stupid. She knows what she wants, and she knows she doesn't want Sasuke. Not anymore. And everyone will see.
1. Free

_Pairing(s): ShikaIno_

**Realizations**

**Free**

'What was I doing?' It wasn't a sarcastic question Ino asked herself, filled with spite; it was a purely curious question. "Good grief, for all I know he might be gay!"

Her teammates looked at her with both surprise and concern.

Opps, had she said that aloud?

"Women." He said it as if it were the fullest explanation there ever was.

Ino was to busy with her dawning realization to be bothered by him now, maybe later she would yell at him, but now she had things to do. "Sorry you guys, I have to cut the training session short. I got something I have to take care of."

And with that, a newly enlightened Ino left Chouji to wonder, and Shikamaru to worry.

'He cares about killing his brother. That's it. If that's all he lives for, there isn't going to be much left of him when he's done with that. It's like, it's the only thing that drives him. Sakura can have him' Ino thought. 'I don't want a broken shell.'

She unlocked her apartment door, disposed of all the trinkets that she had collected while she was under the delusion of Sasuke's perfection, which didn't take too long as you would know had you ever seen a determined Ino on a task before, and took a shower. Not a normal shower, this shower had a sort of symbolic-ness to it; when she got out, she put on a new change of clothes and stood in front of her real mirror instead of the slimming ones she had used for so long.

"Yamanaka Ino, age 17." She declared. "Free."

'I think I'll go train alone for a while.' Ino wore a sweet smile. 'And give them something else to stare at, you know; to lessen the shock.'

And all was right in her world.


	2. Now They Can See

_Pairing(s): ShikaIno_

**Realizations**

**Now they can see**

It was a normal day in the fairly dangerous Konoha village, with a normal fairly dangerous joint training session under Kakashi, and the normal gang. What was not normal, is that Ino seemed to be glowing with something no one could quite pinpoint.

"Ino-pig!" Sakura yelled, she was hanging onto Sasuke, and obviously trying to invoke jealousy.

"Hey." Was all Ino said before returning to the mostly one-sided conversation she was having with Shikamaru.

Needless to say, everyone in the room was puzzled when their ears weren't ringing a few seconds after Ino saw Sasuke. They all happened to be expecting her screeches by now.

"Ino-pig, what's wrong with you?" Sakura asked. "You smart enough to accept defeat?"

"No." Ino turned to Sakura, still clinging to Sakuke, evidently annoyed her conversation had once again been cut short. "Smart enough to know what I want."

"Hi!" Kakashi exclaimed.

When no one scolded him for being incredibly late, he knew something was up.

"I'll be assigning your partners."

Kakashi eventually did notice that Ino wasn't hanging allover Sasuke, and that she seemed to be exceptionally happy today, but he didn't see that as the cause for everyone's temporary stupidity, so his dismisses their dumbstruck looks for something else. He didn't really care so much to find out.

Ino was with Sakura. Chouji Was with Naruto. Shika was with Sasuke.

"Let the games begin!"

Sasuke was strong, but let's all face it; Shikamaru is smart. Much smarter than Sasuke, otherwise Sasuke would've let bygones be bygones instead of wasting his life. So, even though Shika gave up, Sasuke knew in terms of the battle, Shika had won.

Naruto was having a hard time with Chouji's attacks, but in the end, when nothing else could be done, he used the Rasengan and, well.

Ino and Sakura had the most interesting match. Sakura had been trained by the Hokage, and had improved very little aside from her ability to heal herself, but Ino was a fighter to the very core of her essence, and landed some unintentionally damaging blows. Ino won. Right after she figured she'd deplete Sakura's chakra by attacking her from all angles and having her heal herself, after all; everyone knew it took more chakra to heal than to attack. They had both gotten better, and everyone was surprised.

By the time they were all finished, it was dark.

Before anyone could comment on how she had changed, Ino took to leave.

Wordlessly, Shikamaru had gotten up alongside her.

Once they were out of the sight and hearing range of the others, Ino spoke up. "What are you doing?"

"Walking you home."

"I'm Jounin, I think I can handle walking home"

"I know."

"But…"

"But it's dark."

"You don't have to you know." Ino said, slightly exasperated. "I live alone, my dad won't go and tell yours if you didn't watch over my every move."

"I know." And then, figuring it was too troublesome to have to argue with her about this the whole way, he asked, "You're over Sasuke?"

"About time, right?"

"No, way past time."

Ino laughed, and he smiled with a look in his eye that he always saved just for her. "He started to bug me actually. When I got over him. He's very full of himself. You can tell."

There was that look again, the one with the glint of happiness, and the peace he wanted as he watched the clouds. Shikamaru was glad it was dark. In that look there was the most touching love, the kind that drives people to do crazy things, like what he did just then.

"Do you want to go have dinner? At the Ichiraku." He asked.

Ino smiled. "Yes."

'What did I just get myself into?' He thought.


	3. Move It

_Pairing(s): ShikaIno_

**Realizations**

**Move It**

When they were at the Ichiraku, Ino was annoyed that they weren't the only of the rookie nine there.

"INO-PIG!" Ino shuddered at the nasal voice behind her. "Are you here to flirt with Sasuke again?"

Ino decided to ignore her. As she continued to do as she passed team 7.

They were shocked some more. "Oh." Ino said. "Do you mind moving down one seat? Shika and I want to sit here."

They moved. Ino felt like laughing.

Sakura was, for the second time that day, speechless. What had happened to her fellow fan girl. Oh well, she thought; now Sasuke would stop trying to push her away as an excuse to push Ino away. Sakura had concluded he was so shy that he pretended to hate both of them because if he only pushed Ino away, his true feelings would be exposed.

Sasuke didn't really care, after all, one less fan girl to care about. So now he was concentrating on getting rid of Sakura. Perhaps if ignoring her wasn't working, nor was telling her he didn't like her, he could run away and become an exiled nin. Just staying in this shielded village where everyone walks around pretending everything is okay wasn't going to help him get stronger.

Naruto made a mental cheer. If Ino could get over Sasuke, so could Sakura, right? Maybe now she would see Sasuke wasn't all that great.

Shika smiled, one of his oh-so-rare smiles, and tooka seat next to Ino.

"What do you feel like?" He asked.

"I'm hungry. Is it ok with you if a get a large?" Ino asked.

"It's great. So you're finally off that stupid diet." He asked.

"Thankfully. I think I finally see what Chouji means. Food is too good to not eat because of some minor thing." Ino laughed. "I'm just glad I didn't go bulimic."

"You could've fooled me." And coming from Shikamaru, that was something.

Ino didn't hit him, she didn't even play hit him. She just smiled and ate her noodles.

They talked long after team 7 had left, they hadn't even noticed that the three were gone. Shika and Ino were absorbed in each other, and each liked what they saw.


End file.
